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| Introduction | |
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| About this Book and Course | |
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| "Thinking Like a Lawyer" | |
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| The Problem | |
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| Potential Issues | |
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| Sources of Law | |
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| American Law: What It Is and Where It Comes From | |
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| Federal Law | |
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| Federal Jurisdiction | |
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| The Constitution: Source of Substantive Law | |
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| The Constitution: Creator of Federal Lawmaking Bodies | |
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| The Congress: Creator of Law | |
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| The Executive: Implementer of Law | |
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| The Judiciary: Interpreter of Law | |
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| The Judiciary: Interpreter of Law | |
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| State Law | |
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| State Jurisdiction | |
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| State Government Structure | |
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| Finding the Law: Books I | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Law Libraries and Collections | |
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| Legal Publishers | |
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| Legal Research Books | |
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| Primary Sources | |
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| American Law Reports (ALRs) | |
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| Legal Research Books II | |
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| Secondary Sources | |
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| Dictionaries | |
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| Encyclopedias | |
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| Treatises | |
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| Law Journals and Reviews | |
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| Legal Newspapers | |
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| Law Finders | |
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| Finding the Law: Computer Assisted Legal Research (CALR) | |
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| Introduction | |
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| What is Computer Assisted Legal Research? | |
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| Understanding CALR | |
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| Understanding CALR | |
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| Using CALRs | |
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| Signing on to a CALR | |
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| Searching | |
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| Browsing | |
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| Other Searches | |
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| Beyond Legal Research | |
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| Printing and Saving Information | |
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| Signing off from a CALR | |
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| An Approach to Legal Research and an Example | |
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| An Approach to Investigating and an Example | |
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| Begin with a Concise Statement of the Issue | |
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| Choose Key Terms | |
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| Choose Alternative Terms | |
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| Begin with Legal Encyclopedias, Dictionaries, and/or Treatises | |
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| Move to the Statutes | |
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| Look in Digests | |
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| Agency Regulations and Decisions | |
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| CALR Research | |
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| Note Taking and Following Up on Likely Resources | |
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| Integrating Book and CALR Service (Westlaw, LEXIS) Research | |
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| Knowing When to Stop | |
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| Time's Up | |
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| You're out of Money | |
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| Tripping over Yourself | |
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| Finding the Current Law: Updating and Verifying Legal Research and Examples | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Updating Legal Research through Digests and Mini-Digests | |
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| Updating and Verifying Legal Research Using Shepard's Citations | |
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| Using Shepard's Citations to Update Legal Research: An Example | |
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| Verifying and Updating Research Using CALRs | |
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| Integrating Digest, Shepard's, and CALR Citators | |
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| Understanding the Results of Legal Research: Reading the Law | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Reading the Law: Statutes | |
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| Structure of Statutes | |
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| Interpretation of Statutes | |
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| Aids to Statutory Interpretation | |
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| Another Example of Statutory Construction | |
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| Reading the Law: Briefing Cases | |
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| Components of a Court Decision | |
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| Briefing a Case | |
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| Using the Law: Legal Analysis | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Ninety Percent of Legal Analysis Happens in the Head | |
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| The Remaining Ten Percent: Written Legal Analysis | |
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| Examples | |
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| Simple Legal Analysis: Single Law Source | |
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| Complex Legal Analysis: Many Law Sources, Legal Synthesis | |
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| Putting Pen to Paper: Legal Writing | |
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| Legal Writing | |
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| Legal Citations | |
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| Legal Writing Is Organized | |
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| Macro-Organization: Organizing Your Document | |
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| Micro-Organization: Organizing Sentences and Paragraphs | |
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| Legal Writing Is Brief | |
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| Redundancy and Repetition | |
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| Wordiness | |
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| Excising Adjectives and Adverbs | |
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| Legal Writing Is Readable | |
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| Use Simple Words, Sentences, and Paragraphs | |
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| Elegant Variation | |
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| Fog Index | |
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| Negatives | |
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| Prefer Active over Passive Voice | |
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| Forget the Legalese | |
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| Legal Writing Is Accurate | |
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| Vagueness | |
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| Writing, Rewriting, and Revising | |
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| Writing Letters | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Know Your Audience | |
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| Know Your Purpose | |
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| Legal Correspondence Form and Elements | |
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| Form of Legal Correspondence | |
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| Organizing the Body of Legal Correspondence | |
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| E-mail | |
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| Sample Correspondence | |
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| The Legal Research Memoranda | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Know Your Audience | |
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| Know Your Purpose | |
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| Legal Research Memos: Form and Elements | |
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| The Body of a Legal Research Memorandum | |
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| Sample Legal Research Memoranda | |
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| Sample Student Briefs in the Vincent McCall Case | |
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| Trial Court Legal Memoranda | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Know Your Audience and Purpose | |
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| Trial Court Memoranda: Form and Elements | |
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| Body of a Trial Court Memorandum | |
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| Caption | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Statement of Facts | |
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| Argument | |
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| Conclusion | |
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| Sample "Trial Court" Memoranda | |
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| Writing Appellate Briefs | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Appellate Process, Rules, and Deadlines | |
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| Know Your Audience and Purpose | |
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| Appellate Briefs: Form and Elements | |
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| The Body of the Appellate Brief | |
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| Cover/Title Page | |
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| Table of Contents | |
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| Table of Authorities | |
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| Statement of Jurisdiction | |
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| Statement of Issues | |
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| Statement of the Case | |
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| Summary of the Argument | |
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| Argument | |
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| Conclusion | |
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| Certificate of Service | |
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| Addendum of Constitutional and Statutory Provisions | |
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| Appendix | |
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| Form of an Appellate Brief | |
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| Sample Appellate Briefs | |
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| Selected Codes Governing Paralegal Ethics | |
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| NALA Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility | |
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| National Federation of Paralegal Associations, Inc. Model Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility and Guidelines for Enforcement | |
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| Preamble | |
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| NFPA Model Disciplinary Rules and Ethical Considerations | |
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| ABA Model Standards and Guidelines for Utilization of Legal Assistants | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Standards | |
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| Guidelines | |
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| Comparison of Selected ALWD and Bluebook 17th Edition Rules | |
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| Glossary | |
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| Index | |